The Night HE Came to Fort Scott

We managed to snap a photo of famed psychopath and serial killer Michael Myers in front of our house when the masked man(?) paid a visit to our home on Halloween night 2007.

October 31, 2007. Halloween night. It was a night that I had never experienced before, nor will I ever forget.

I had heard all the rumors leading up to that fateful evening. The famed masked psychopath known as Michael Myers was possibly coming to Fort Scott on Halloween, reportedly to search for a long-lost relative.

Many local residents, including myself, began asking themselves several questions, "Why? Why come to Fort Scott? Is Michael Myers real? And, if so, who is he after?"

Although I never found out the answer to these questions, I was able to learn more about the behavior of the masked figure sometimes called "The Shape" during my encounter with Myers on Halloween night.

And, somehow, I managed to survive through the evening and lived to write about it.

I came home from work Wednesday evening, which started out like any just about any other evening at my house. I kicked back to read a magazine and unwind from my day. My wife and I swapped stories about our work days. I helped my son with his homework before he headed off to his room for some free time.

I was really getting into an article in the magazine when I heard a little yelp coming from the back of the house; my son's bedroom. Then I heard my wife run into the room hurriedly, so I jumped up as well to see what was going on.

By the time I reached the bedroom, I could see that my wife and son were backing out of the doorway to his room, and my wife looked over at me and said "What's going on? Who is that?" At this time, there was still daylight left and I walked across the room to the window and pulled back the curtains.

I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

A blank, white, expressionless face (the face of evil?) staring back at me through the pane of glass. Black eyes, dark as night, gazing through the window at me and my family. A crop of brown, stringy hair flowed back on the stranger's head. He, or perhaps It, wore a pair of dark blue coveralls that one would see a mechanic wear.

I froze. I wasn't sure how to react. I knew who it was but I guess my brain didn't want to acknowledge it.

The figure raised one arm and began rapping on the window pane. I looked to my family, as if maybe they held the answer as to what to do next. The figure knocked on the window once again, and then tilted it's head, ever so slowly, to one side. And then the other. But the figure never took it's gaze off of us.

And then, just like that, he (or It) was gone from the window. But apparently, he didn't leave. Because as my family and I decided to leave the house to perhaps go get help, the figure had moved to our front yard. But this supposed killer had not made any threatening move toward us, and appeared to be more docile than I had imagined.

So we decided to make the first move; we decided to show the figure some hospitality. Maybe that's what the figure needed. He had never been shown this type of kindness so we thought he may not know how to react. So we chose not to panic or try to attack it. We invited it into our house, not really knowing what to expect. The tall figure once again cocked his head to both sides, as if pondering this gesture, and walked inside our living room.

My family and I spent the next few hours getting to know this gentle figure, who never uttered a word the entire night, but expressed all of his emotions through his actions. He mostly sat on the couch, as we watched television and listened to his heavy breathing.

He was mostly calm, peaceful, and curious. And I soon figured out why. We didn't pose a threat to him. Perhaps we made Myers feel comfortable for once. Maybe for once he didn't feel the urge to kill, because somewhere inside was a little boy who just wanted to be loved.

And we learned a few facts about the supposed dreaded masked serial killer known as Michael Myers. Yes, he's really out there and apparently he only comes around on Halloween. Why he chose to come to Fort Scott, and who he was really after, if he was even after someone, we're still not sure, because he never spoke to us.

But if people would really take the time to get to know someone and get to the heart of that person (or thing), even a deranged psychopath like Michael Myers might not seem as scary or threatening. What he might be really searching for is love.